Ignition Point
by Nocturnal Introvert
Summary: A one-shot about pre-teen Robbie and Wendy and the origin of that 'masterpiece' of an explosion on the water tower.


Robbie sat alone in his room with his cheap, acoustic guitar, becoming frustrated in his billionth attempt to make a somewhat difficult bar chord. He had been playing guitar for around two years, but up until now he'd mostly stuck to basic chords, and his fingers proved to be not quite strong enough for bar chords just yet. He stared intently at the chord chart in the cheap chord dictionary he'd recently picked up at a yard sale, determined to play the chord cleanly so he could use it in a song he was writing. Just as he thought he'd finally gotten his fingers into the right position to play the chord right, a loud buzzing sound coming from his bedside desk caused him to flinch, ruining his concentration. Muttering angrily to himself, he picked up his crappy flip phone he'd just received for his thirteenth birthday. His anger instantly dissolved as he saw who the text was from.

"dude, love really sucks!" the message read.

Robbie sent a reply immediately, curious to see what Wendy had been up to this time and already willing to pummel any guy who may have hurt her. Though she was only twelve, Wendy had already had four boyfriends as far as Robbie knew. Not to mention the approximately three billion crushes. Wendy had never been one for romance as far as Robbie knew, but it was like she suddenly thought that she needed a guy in her life to be happy. It was rather irritating, but Robbie was convinced it was just a stage all girls went through at some point. Meanwhile, he was in the middle of his mid-adolescent-life crisis stage, trying to change his identity completely based on the guys Wendy had shown interest in as of thus far. He hadn't been able to hang out with Wendy lately since he was a year older than her and they were currently going to different schools, but now that he had a cell phone Tambry made sure to keep him updated on all Wendy-centric events. She seemed to know how much Wendy meant to Robbie, even if Wendy herself was pretty clueless about it most of the time.

Robbie slipped his phone into his pocket just as it vibrated yet again. He lay his guitar down on his bed, deciding to give up on his song for now.

"ever felt like u were in love w/ someone who doesnt even know u exist?" Wendy had texted him.

Almost as if they had a mind of their own, Robbie's thumbs began to type out the first words that came to his mind: "All the time."

But of course, being a nervous wreck as always, after hitting the send button he immediately canceled the message and changed his response to "huh?"

At this point, Robbie was incredibly curious about what had happened to Wendy. Ever since he had started going to Gravity Falls Middle School, he'd done his best to distance himself from everyone in an attempt to figure some things out and create a new image for himself. So, aside from the updates from Tambry, he hadn't heard a lot from Wendy lately. But last he checked she didn't tend to get too emotionally involved with any of the guys she had 'dated' so far. The fact that she was now coming to him to vent via text message was rather concerning.

"lol. sorry for being a drama queen. just got rejected and im not handling it so well" Wendy replied.

Robbie pondered over the text for a while, unsure of how to reply. He wasn't sure if Wendy was actually ready to ditch the subject, or if that was just her way of subtly telling him she needed someone to talk to. He wasn't fluent in pre-teenage girl speak, but he figured the latter was more likely to be true. Robbie was planning to work on his latest song and then go to the park to make a first attempt at doing some graffiti, but he soon decided Wendy was higher on his priority list.

"ouch. sorry. i'll be at circle park soon if u wanna stop by and talk." Robbie sent her after a few moments of stressing out over a decent response. He was worried she'd say no, but he managed to build up the guts to send it nonetheless.

He felt his heart beat a little faster when he saw her reply: "k". He never thought seeing a single letter would make him so happy.

* * *

Robbie sat on a bench in Circle Park, nervously checking his phone every so often to see if Wendy had sent him another text telling him she was bailing on their plans. Honestly, he kind of hoped she would. He really had no interest in hearing about whoever Wendy was infatuated with at the moment, but on the other hand he was willing to listen to her talk simply because he enjoyed being around her.

Wendy showed up only a few minutes after Robbie had gotten there. She walked like she had a weight on her shoulders; each of her steps was as heavy as possible on the soft, springy grass. Her shaggy red hair was in her face, making her expression hard to read.

"Hey Wendy." Robbie called, standing up on unsure legs and making his way over to her.

Wendy gave him a little wave.

"You okay?" He asked her.

Wendy shrugged in response. "I dunno, man…I guess I am." She told him, a bit hesitantly. "I'm just a little bit ticked off I think."

Robbie nodded, trying his best to look like he understood. "Aha. Gotcha." He said. "So, what went on?" He sat back down beside her as she plopped onto the bench.

"Okay, this is going to sound so stupid but...I've liked this guy for a while. And when one of my friends finally convinced me to ask him out, he totally rejected me and didn't even know my name. It was soo embarrassing!" Wendy explained, sighing.

"O-oh...Well, that stinks." Robbie said, frowning sympathetically. He was kind of surprised that someone wouldn't know Wendy. It was a decently small town, and Wendy seemed to have more and more guys falling at her feet every week. By Robbie's standards, she seemed pretty popular. Even if she didn't act like a typical 'popular' girl would. For a girl who gets asked out multiple times a week, being rejected probably came as a shock.

Wendy nodded. "Yeah…I know." She muttered, letting out another quiet sigh. "I don't get it…I know basically everything about him, and then he doesn't even know my first name. How does that even happen?"

Robbie shrugged. "He just doesn't pay enough attention I guess." He told her. He waited a moment before adding: "And it's his loss, so like, whatever. If a girl like you showed any interest in me, I'd totally give her my full attention." Robbie hadn't gotten to the point in his life where he thought he had to be all tough quite yet. He was used to being quiet and keeping things to himself, but it was only because he was insecure and thought voicing his thoughts aloud was pointless because no one would care to hear them. But he was so comfortable around Wendy. He could tell she was willing to listen to him. She just wasn't a very judgmental person.

It came as a surprise to Wendy that Robbie would say anything like that to her. Though he'd always been there for her, Robbie wasn't the type of person to give advice or compliment people. He kept to himself mostly. Wendy's cheeks flushed a bright pink as she heard what he said, but she thought that maybe she was overlooking a simple comment when he hadn't meant anything by it. "Aw, Robbie. That's so sweet." The ginger girl murmured, flashing him a quick smile. "See, I should try to find a guy like you." She regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth, but she did her best to act like she hadn't said anything special. Even if he was totally her type, there was no way Robbie would be interested in her. He just didn't seem like the type of guy to rush into the whole 'dating' scene quite yet, in her opinion.

Robbie felt his face heat up. He wanted to scream "Hello?! I'm like me! And I'm right here, so you can stop looking anytime!" but instead he ended up shrugging awkwardly. "Just don't settle for a guy like that," He told her, his voice sounding a lot squeakier than he'd hoped. He mentally cursed puberty and cleared his throat before he spoke again. "'cause you totally deserve someone like, a thousand times better than that. You're a really cool girl, and that boy doesn't know what he's missing."

A wide grin spread across Wendy's face, but soon disappeared and became a passive half-grimace half-frown. "Ha. Well, I don't know about that. I'm not all that great." She told Robbie, leaning back in the bench and looking up at the cloudy sky.

"What do you mean?" He asked, glancing over at her with a slightly perplexed expression on his face. "You seem pretty awesome to me."

Wendy let out a weak sounding laugh. "Well you're my best friend, dude. You pretty much have to think I'm awesome. That's like, rule one in the best friend handbook."

Robbie shook his head in disagreement. "No way. That's not it." He said. "Even if you weren't my best friend, I'd think you were awesome anyway. I mean, my first week in Oregon you basically threw a welcoming party for me." He smiled at the memory. Little eight year old Wendy on her first day of third grade, her short red hair in pigtails and her newly braces filled smile lighting up her face like the candles on a cake as Robbie arrived at the bus stop. He made every effort possible to ignore her, but she just kept on coming back day after day and trying to befriend him. He was a whole year older than her and a little bit scary, but that didn't matter to her. All she wanted was to make him feel welcome and to make a new friend. "I remember being so angry at everything, and then I met you and suddenly things started seeming a little bit better." He looked up at the sky for a moment, trying to figure out exactly what Wendy was looking at. "I really hated this town. And I hated my mom for sending me here. But then I met you and I realized maybe it wasn't so bad. It's not like it was a great thing that I moved, but at least I got meeting you out of it. Which really rocks. Because when I'm around you, the world doesn't suck so bad. That's pretty awesome in my opinion."

Wendy looked over at him and smiled. He was absorbed in thought now, staring up at the exact piece of sky she'd been looking at seconds ago, memorizing it. She wondered how it was possible for someone who was usually so quiet and seemed so uncaring to have such kind, puzzling thoughts bottled up inside.

Robbie felt the familiar, self-conscious feeling of being looked at and glanced down to catch her gaze for a mere heartbeat, returning her smile with a half-grin before glancing away nervously as if he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't be doing.

"Dude, I really love you." Wendy blurted, her face heating up as she heard her thought voiced out loud. Robbie's eyes opened wide, and Wendy felt the need to correct herself to avoid being rejected yet again. Two times in one week was too much for her preteen heart to handle. "I mean, like, you're such a great guy. Because you totally get me, you know? And that's so cool. I'm lucky to have you for a friend."

Robbie's face fell a little, but he tried his best to come up with a reasonable response to this sudden friend-zoning. "Oh. Thanks. I'm lucky to have you too." He told her. "I-I mean, not like I have you or anything. I meant as a friend. I think you knew that…just clarifying and stuff."

Wendy laughed, hoping to break the tension she'd accidentally caused. "No worries, I knew what you meant." She said.

Robbie laughed back nervously. "So, um…Anyway, I originally came here to do graffiti. It's okay if you wanna go or whatever, but I think I'm gonna start working on something." He told her. "Well, unless you feel like you wanna talk some more, I don't care." He shrugged and unzipped the backpack that he'd slung over the side of the bench and fished around in it while waiting to see what she wanted to do.

"You do graffiti?" Wendy asked him, seeming genuinely surprised.

"I-uh…Well no, not really. Not yet. This will be my first 'masterpiece'." Robbie explained, looking a bit flustered. He held up a can of red spray paint and nodded toward it.

"That's so cool, dude! I totally wanna stay and check this out."

Robbie shrugged, trying to hold back a smile. He was quite pleased that Wendy was showing interest, though he wasn't exactly sure of what he was doing. He glanced around the park, looking for a good spot to paint. Suddenly, he thought of a way to make himself look really cool.

Robbie climbed up the ladder of the water tower, the metal cool against his slightly shaky hands. It proved to be more difficult than he'd expected, mostly just because he had the can of spray paint in one hand and he was nervous about being caught. He didn't want Wendy to take any of the blame just for being around if someone yelled at him. Once he got to the top, he realized he had no clue what to paint. His original idea had been a skull, but it just didn't seem right. He wanted to paint something that he could relate to. It was the first artwork he would have 'on display' in public, and he wanted it to be good, especially if Wendy was watching him paint it. It had to be simple, but cool.

He was about to change his mind, deciding the task was too difficult. But then Robbie glanced over his shoulder at the red haired girl sitting on the bench below, and he felt a sudden spur of energy. She was all the inspiration he needed. Honestly, he loved her so much. He was just so glad to have her in his life, even if she didn't seem to like him the way he liked her. Whenever he looked at her it felt like fire was blazing through his veins. Just being around her made it feel like his heart was…exploding.

Without hesitation, he shook the can of paint and began to spray a huge, curving line on the side of the water tower.

"See this, Wendy? This is my heart; this is how I feel about you." Robbie whispered as he painted, knowing she wouldn't be able to hear him.

When Robbie finished painting a total of five minutes later, he climbed down the ladder and walked over to Wendy with a huge grin on his face.

"Dude, that's pretty awesome." She told him, looking at his painting and nodding in approval. "Is it like a muf-"

Robbie cut her off before she made the wrong guess, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Yeah, it's an explosion." He told her, nodding. The way she was looking at his painting made him feel a sense of pride that he couldn't quite place. Feeling a surge of confidence, he decided to attempt to be smooth. He grinned and threw the mostly-empty can of spray paint at Wendy.

Caught off guard, Wendy flinched and caught the can, giving him a questioning look.

"Keep it as a souvenir; for when I'm a famous artist someday." Robbie said in a mostly joking tone.

Wendy wasn't sure why, but something about him was making her feel all weird inside all of a sudden. She had always really liked Robbie, but she wasn't sure that she'd always felt like this. The way he was looking at her made her stomach churn in a way that actually wasn't so unpleasant and sent little tingles throughout her entire body. He was looking at her in a way completely different from how all her past 'boyfriends' had looked at her. He wasn't just looking at her like that because she was pretty or because she was the toughest girl in the sixth grade. It was more than that.

Robbie was willing to stick around and listen to her, and he'd always been by her side for years as a sort of silent supporter. She didn't quite understand why, but at this moment something made her appreciate Robbie more than she ever had. The way she was feeling about him was different than she'd ever felt about any of her past crushes. It wasn't the somewhat frightening feeling of 'falling in love' like she was used to, with the warm nervousness of trying to impress someone. It was calmer than that. She was all at once realizing how she felt about him, but knew she wouldn't have to change a thing about how they acted around each other. Robbie made Wendy feel willing to stick around for a while and see how things played out between them. And that was rare for her. She knew he wouldn't bore her or get bored of her; if he ever felt the same way about her, she had a feeling that neither of them would give up on each other. Wendy was officially in love with this boy, and she was loving every minute of it.

She gazed up at the giant explosion Robbie had just painted, and it took on a new look that how she'd seen it just moments ago. She wasn't sure why, but it seemed more special now. She was glad she had been there to witness its creation.

Wendy looked back to the can of spray paint in her hand and grinned.

"Oh, whatever, you dork." She laughed.

* * *

**A/N: I originally started writing this as a Valentines Day gift to one of my friends, and completely forgot about it until now. How cool of me. Anyway, this is dedicated to the lovely Ariana for comforting me when the ship sunk.**


End file.
